South Korea's Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service on Friday launched an emergency response over a case in which a large amount of bitcoin was mistakenly paid out at domestic crypto exchange Bithumb.

The FSS held an emergency response meeting on Friday morning led by FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin (이찬진) and immediately dispatched an on-site inspection team.

The inspection will broadly determine the circumstances of the incident, Bithumb's user protection measures, the possibility of recovering the mistakenly paid bitcoin and any illegalities. Given the seriousness of the matter, it appears likely to be converted into a formal inspection.

The FSC is also set to hold an emergency inspection meeting on Friday afternoon led by FSC Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young (권대영). Lee Jae-won (이재원), Bithumb's chief executive, is expected to attend.

According to the industry, Bithumb on Thursday evening tried to pay out prizes to participating users through its own "random box" event, but a staff member mistakenly entered the unit as "bitcoin" instead of "won".

As a result, a total of 620,000 won that was originally to be paid to 249 people was mistakenly paid as 620,000 bitcoin.

Bithumb said it immediately recovered most of the mistakenly paid bitcoin, but has yet to recover won and virtual assets equivalent to about 125 bitcoin.

[Yonhap News Agency]